USAF Deputy Undersecretary For Space Programs Gary Payton has told Defense News that President Obama’s proposal to cancel the Constellation program would have a “trivial” impact in terms of solid motor production costs. He also said the Air Force could benefit if NASA decides to use an existing expendable for human missions.

Q. Are you concerned about the Constellation decision’s impact on the solid-rocket motor industrial base?

A. We’ve come to find out that it has a trivial impact on space launch because we don’t use the big 3½-meter segmented solids on our EELVs; we use solids that are about 1½ meters in diameter. There is a small ripple effect into space launch, but the dominant industrial base concern, according to the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy, is on the ballistic missile side for the Navy and Air Force. We build 30 to 40 stages for the Trident D5 submarine-launched missile every year, and there are about a dozen motors built each year to sustain the Minuteman 3 industrial base. We already know these sustainment costs will go up, but we don’t yet know by how much.

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TESTIMONY OF
NORMAN R. AUGUSTINE
CHAIRMAN, REVIEW OF U.S. HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT PLANS COMMITTEE
ON AMERICA’S HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT PROGRAM
BEFORE THE
U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE
ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION
WASHINGTON, DC
MAY 12, 2010

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to address America’s future human spaceflight plans. I, like you, have had the great good fortune to have lived in this tiny sliver of time when humans first began to explore space, and have had the even greater good fortune to have participated in some small part of that effort as an engineer and as a manager. I must confess to you that I am a proponent of human spaceflight—not so much because of its impact on the economy, its support of science, or its advancements in engineering—although it does all those things—but for the intangibles it offers, including the inspiration it provides to our nation’s citizenry, particularly its young people; for the impact it has in paving the way for humans to move further out into the planetary system; and for what it says to the world about the American people and what we and our system of government and free enterprise can accomplish.

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In his testimony before the Senate on Wednesday, retired Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong made some stark claims about the way NASA’s new human spaceflight program was formulated. In his written remarks, Armstrong said:

With regard to President Obama’s 2010 plan, I have yet to find a person in NASA, the Defense Department, the Air Force, the National Academies, industry, or academia that had any knowledge of the plan prior to its announcement. Rumors abound that neither the NASA Administrator nor the President‟s Science and Technology Advisor were knowledgeable about the plan. Lack of review normally guarantees that there will be overlooked requirements and unwelcome consequences. How could such a chain of events happen? A plan that was invisible to so many was likely contrived by a very small group in secret who persuaded the President that this was a unique opportunity to put his stamp on a new and innovative program. I believe the President was poorly advised.

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Starchaser's Nova 2 rocket, which may carry tourists into space.

Tubes deal aids UK space race
Lancashire Evening Post

A Preston company has supplied parts to a company which is part of the race to get the first tourists in space. The Attwater Group, which has been making insulation materials in the city for more than 135 years, has donated a number of paper tubes capable of soaking up heavy impacts to The Starchaser project….

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Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV
Chairman, U.S. Senate Committee
on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Prepared Remarks
May 12, 2010

Our space program is at a turning point. Earlier this year, the Obama Administration charted a new course for NASA, and I know there is still a lot of uncertainty, particularly when it comes to the proposed plans for human spaceflight. This hearing is an important opportunity to take a close look at those plans.

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SEA LAUNCH PRESS RELEASE

Sea Launch Company LLC, a leading provider of launch services to the commercial satellite industry, has filed a Plan of Reorganization (the “Plan”) with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, in preparation for its emergence from Chapter 11. Sea Launch filed voluntary petitions to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on June 22, 2009.

Pursuant to the terms of the Plan, Energia Overseas Limited (EOL) will purchase 85% of the stock in the reorganized Sea Launch in exchange for an equity investment of $140 million. EOL will also provide Sea Launch with access to a working capital facility in the amount of $200 million. EOL is a joint venture company collaborating with RSC Energia, a founding Sea Launch partner with lead responsibility as a key supplier and manager of rocket operations. The remaining 15% stake in the company will be owned by Sea Launch’s unsecured creditors.

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 Apparently, Iron Man Tony Stark is Space X founder Elon Musk – minus the five kids and the messy divorce. Jon Favreau writes the following for the 2010 Time 100: Elon Musk makes no sense — and that’s the reason I know him. When I was trying to bring the character of genius billionaire Tony Stark to the big screen in Iron Man, I had no idea how to […]

Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin

Yesterday on Capitol Hill, Apollo veterans Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan questioned whether the private sector was capable of building and operating reliable rockets and spacecraft for NASA’s human spaceflight program. They were reportedly assisted in preparing their testimony by former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, who has led the fight to save the Ares rocket program from cancellation.

Today, the privately-built Delta rocket line celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first launch as workers prepare for the May 20th liftoff of a Delta IV booster that will be the 349th flight in the program’s history.

Interestingly enough, Griffin will be a special guest speaker at a banquet during a two-day 50th anniversary celebration scheduled for this weekend in Florida. It’s ironic because Griffin doesn’t believe that either Delta IV or Atlas V, both built by private sector launch provider United Launch Alliance, are viable candidates to replace the Ares I rocket that President Obama wants to cancel. (ULA disagrees, saying that either one could fill the role with proper modifications.)

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COMMERCIAL SPACEFLIGHT FEDERATION PRESS RELEASE
May 12, 2010

Adding new voices to the debate over NASA’s future, Senator Rockefeller (D-W.V.), Senator Warner (D-Virginia), and Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) attended today’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing and registered supportive comments concerning the commercial space industry.

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Eugene Cernan

Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan threw the rhetorical kitchen sink at the Obama’s Administration’s plan for commercial human spaceflight on Wednesday, saying it was a “devastating” plan that would result in a”slide to mediocrity” leading to “third rate stature” in space while putting America on a “road to ‘nowhere'”.

When one examines the FY2011 budget proposal, nowhere is there to be found one penny allocated to support space exploration. Yes, there has been much rhetoric on transformative technology, heavy lift propulsion research, robotic precursor missions, significant investment in commercial crew and cargo capabilities, pursuit of cross-cutting space technology capabilities, climate change research, aeronautics R&D, and education initiatives. Yet nowhere do we find any mention of the Human Exploration of Space and nowhere do we find a commitment in dollars to support this national endeavor. We (Armstrong, Lovell and myself) have come to the unanimous conclusion that this budget proposal presents no challenges, has no focus, and in fact is a blueprint for a mission to “nowhere.”
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In a Congressional hearing yesterday, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong criticized NASA’s new direction in human spaceflight as being an ill-conceived and dangerous effort that cancels a viable Constellation architecture and forfeits America’s leadership in space while relying on unproven commercial alternatives that would fall short on safety, reliability and cost.

“With regard to President Obama’s 2010 plan, I have yet to find a person in NASA, the Defense Department, the Air Force, the National Academies, industry, or academia that had any knowledge of the plan prior to its announcement. Rumors abound that neither the NASA Administrator nor the President’s Science and Technology Advisor were knowledgeable about the plan. Lack of review normally guarantees that there will be overlooked requirements and unwelcome consequences. How could such a chain of events happen? A plan that was invisible to so many was likely contrived by a very small group in secret who persuaded the President that this was a unique opportunity to put his stamp on a new and innovative program. I believe the President was poorly advised….

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